DO YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR BRAIN HEALTHY as you age? According to the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association, there are seven measures you can take to optimize your brain health.
Over time, our arteries tend to become progressively more clogged with fat and other toxins. With this atherosclerosis comes a higher chance of suffering from coronary heart disease, chronic kidney disease, and strokes.
Guidance from the associations mentioned above reminds us that many of the factors that increase our probability of atherosclerosis also impair our cognitive health in later life.
Today we explore seven ways that may help you to optimize your brain health.
Keeping a healthy brain as you age
Let’s look at seven measures that we can take to keep our brain well-tuned as we age and hopefully keep memory loss at bay.
A 2017 advisory from the American Health Association and American Stroke Association mentions seven metrics to promote cardiovascular health.
The American Heart Association defines life’s Simple 7 as the seven risk factors that we can improve through lifestyle changes to help achieve ideal cardiovascular health. Here are the seven key steps:
1. Manage blood pressure (keep it under 120/80 millimeters of mercury
2. Control cholesterol (keep cholesterol levels under 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL)
3. Keep blood sugar normal (fasting blood sugar levels under 100 mg/dL). Learn how to reduce your blood sugar with this infographic:
Life’s Simple 7 Blood Sugar Infographic
Life’s Simple 7 Move More Be Active Infograph
5. Eat a healthy diet
6. Lose extra weight
7. Don’t start smoking or quit. Cigarette smokers have a higher chance of developing cardiovascular disease. If you smoke, quitting is the best thing you can do for your health.
A healthier heart translates to a more fit brain. Many factors that elevate atherosclerosis risk also appear to impair cognitive health in later life.
By following these seven steps, we may not only lower our chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, but we may also be able to prevent cognitive impairment. This observation makes sense: Memory loss is more likely if the arteries that carry blood to the brain become narrow or damaged.
